Iain Sutcliffe

Iain Sutcliffe is a Professor of Microbiology at Northumbria University, with prior roles as Research Lead (2012–2019) and REF Lead (2019–2021) in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. He holds a PhD in microbial physiology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His research focuses on bacterial cell envelopes, bacterial lipoproteins, and microbial systematics, particularly using genomics to advance taxonomy. He served as Chair of the International Committee for Systematics of Prokaryotes (2017–2023) and contributes to the SeqCode initiative for naming uncultured microorganisms.

His professional activities include editorial roles at Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Frontiers in Microbiology, and active participation in microbial systematics committees. Research interests span outer membrane evolution, chemotaxonomy modernization, and genomic approaches to bacterial classification.

Key contributions include redefining Prescottella equi taxonomy and advancing genomic-based nomenclature frameworks. Collaborative efforts include the Rhodococcus genus reclassification and Actinomycetia family proposals.